Background: Swallowing difficulties to variable consistencies is an alarming sign.
Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate symptoms of Dysphagia reported by patients with Minimal Associated
Pathological vocal fold lesions (MAPLs) on basis of subjective as well as objective measures in patients with dysphonia.
Patients and Methods: This study was applied on 50 patients with age ranging from 15-50 years diagnosed as being
dysphonic secondary to Minimal Associated Pathological vocal fold lesions confirmed by objective and clinical measures.
Results: After the application of the A-EAT-10 questionnaire on 50 dysphonic patients who were selected to participate in
this study, 12 cases (about 24%) were considered dysphagic with a score above 3. It was necessary to search for the cause
of dysphagia by an objective method. So, patients reported as dysphagic by the A-EAT-10 underwent Videofluoroscopic
examination. Within these 12 patients, none of them (0%) exhibited any signs of swallowing abnormalities detected
during VFSS, to justify the reported dysphagia. Thus, there was no correlation between the presence of dysphagia reported
by the A-EAT and the videofluoroscopic findings.
Conclusion : Symptoms of dysphagia were reported by patients with minimal associated pathological lesions and were
documented with a screening tool like the A-EAT. However, that was not confirmed by a videofluoroscopic examination.